WYEP-FM 91.5, not the mellifluous 91.3 that came after the FCC granted a power change and a quick demotion down the frequency modulated dial, was housed in the basement at 4 Cable Place in Oakland. Gave true meaning to underground radio. I was on the air on Thursday morning 8 AM until noon and then again on Saturday morning from 8 AM until noon. The nightmare of trying to entertain as well as edify wore on me. Then came the sad news the person who followed me on Thursdays had committed suicide. I inherited four more hours. The only time I could urinate was when I could find a very long cut of an album. Luckily it was the age of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and the classical music LP’s. The bathroom, a horrid affair with a toilet, a sink, a rat trap and sweating walls was just a studio away. Never liked Iron Butterfly much but they got my reward for how I spelled relief. The question I confronted weekly. What do you do with twelve hours of on-air time? There was no one to look for for guidance. All these ideas about radio creeped into my head. I dreamed far more advanced techniques than I could achieve with equipment always on the mend. Three turntables, one 15” reel to reel Teac machine, a mixing console and three microphones and my weak voice. I played some music I hoped would please everyone, turned on the mic, stumbled through some ramble most likely gathered from the album liner notes. Smooth. Hep. Cool. We knew no one was listening. Made it easier when we made a sloppy transition, managed a minute or two of dead air, or forgot to flip off the mic switch so that our conversation bubbled while Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto Op 38 was playing with great passion. Phone calls came when the phonograph record which put me to sleep skipped for a solid minute. Phone calls came when I made a pronouncement about a dead musician who had miraculously survived my eulogy. Phone calls came when I pronounced a less than flattering Latin phrase incorrectly. Phone calls came. Slowly the realization, people were listening. Now I was terrified.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 09:03:31 +0000
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